Mark his words, Dons are still aiming high
MARK REYNOLDS believes Aberdeen are ready to shrug off yet another European disappointment and once again prove to be Celtic’s biggest challengers.
The Dons suffered more Europa League heartache for the fourth year in a row as they crashed out on a controversial night in Cyprus.
A lifeless 2-0 defeat was marred by Aberdeen fans being involved in running battles with riot police after the game.
The home supporters nearly forced the match to be abandoned due to their incessant insistence in letting off flares, firecrackers and smoke bombs.
After that setback to Apollon Limassol and the departure of major players this summer like Jonny Hayes and Niall McGinn, it would perhaps be forgiven if the Reds squad were on a downer ahead of the new campaign.
However, Reynolds is convinced Aberdeen will still be the best of the rest as they prepare to face Hamilton Accies today at Pittodrie and look to beat last season’s record points total of 76 points.
He said: “We still regard ourselves as Celtic’s biggest challengers.
“We will go into the league confident.
“Yes, we’ve lost a few players, but I think we have shown in these European games that we have recruited well and we are a good team again, who will cause problems for all the other clubs.
“We’ll go forward and keep trying to build, just as we have over the last three or four years.
“This team is as strong as it has been for a few years and the new players are gelling well.
“We are a bit different without Jonny and Niall, but with Greg Stewart and Ryan Christie
feeling we have something different – and they are match-winners too.
“If you are talking about trying to beat last season’s points tally, we will need to win as many games as we can.
“If we want to be up there challenging as close to Celtic and Rangers, Hibs and Hearts, too, we have to win most weeks.
“We need to dust ourselves down and get focused on three points again. The league campaign has come round and we want to be ready from the very start.”
Aberdeen blew a glorious chance of progressing to the play-off round of the Europa League for the first time on Thursday against an Apollon Limassol team who were extremely beatable.
And Reynolds admits they were furious with themselves for not going further.
He doesn’t believe the Cypriots were at the same level as the other teams who have eliminated them at this stage, like Real Sociedad, Kairat Almaty and Maribor.
Reynolds said: “‘It’s disappointing, sore and still raw.
“No disrespect to them, but any time we have gone out of this competition, it’s been against a bigger team.
“We’ve been here before. We had good spells against Apollon, but we just didn’t show it enough.
“A couple of the goals they scored – their first goal last week and first goal in Cyprus – were down to poor defending from us rather than them cutting us open.
“Out of all the years we’ve been here, this was definitely our best chance of progression.
“I think anybody who has followed those campaigns would agree.
“Previously, we’ve played top European sides. Don’t get me wrong – Apollon were decent but they were beatable.
“I don’t think it becomes a psychological issue. Of the teams we went out to before, you’d say: ‘Good side. We just didn’t have enough’.
“This year, we sat on the plane and felt we’d blown a real opportunity.
“We gave ourselves a real chance after the first leg and our attitude was that we were always going to need to go to Cyprus and score.
“We had three or four good chances which we never took. We just couldn’t get that away goal.”